Table Bay Speedboat Ocean Safari, Cape Town

Table Bay: Cape Town from the water

Table Bay is the wide, open bay on which Cape Town was founded, the natural anchorage that gave the city its reason to exist. From the water the famous skyline arranges itself in the way the first sailors saw it: the flat top of Table Mountain in the centre, Devil's Peak to the left, Lion's Head and Signal Hill to the right, and the tower blocks of the city bowl tucked between them. A Table Bay boat trip is the quickest way to see all of this in one frame.

The bay is exposed to the Atlantic, which is why the ride can be lively and why the skipper chooses the route each morning according to the wind and swell. In summer the south-easter blows a white 'tablecloth' of cloud over the mountain; in winter the water is often calmer and the air clearer. Either way, the boat stays within the bay, usually between the harbour, Robben Island and the beaches of the Atlantic seaboard.

Leaving the V&A Waterfront harbour

Your ocean safari begins at Quay 5 in the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town's historic working harbour. After a safety briefing, the fitting of life jackets and a quick signature on the indemnity form, you step aboard and the boat eases past the fishing fleet, the Clock Tower and the Robben Island ferry jetty. Cape fur seals are often lounging on the pontoons here, so the wildlife begins before you have left the dock.

Once clear of the breakwater the skipper opens the throttle and the boat skims across the bay, passing the Cape Town Stadium at Green Point and the red-and-white striped lighthouse at Mouille Point, which has guided ships into the harbour since the 1820s. Those first minutes are the fast part of the trip; expect spray, wind and a lot of laughter before the engine drops to a gentle idle.

The Atlantic seaboard: Clifton, Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles

When the weather allows, the boat heads south-west along the Atlantic seaboard, where Cape Town's most beautiful beaches sit beneath the mountain. Clifton's four small coves of white sand are separated by granite boulders; beyond them Camps Bay opens up with its palm-lined promenade and the long wall of the Twelve Apostles, the row of sandstone buttresses that runs down the back of Table Mountain towards Hout Bay.

From the water you understand the geography in a way you never do from the road: the way Lion's Head stands alone above Clifton, how the mountain drops straight into the ocean, and why the water on this side is so cold and so clear. The skipper idles here for photographs, and on calm days the view of the Twelve Apostles with the sun on them is the best photo of the trip.

Marine life of Table Bay: seals, dolphins, penguins and whales

Cape Town sits where the cold Atlantic meets a rich upwelling of nutrients, and the bay is busy with life. Cape fur seals are the most reliable sighting, playing around the harbour and rafting offshore. Pods of common and dusky dolphins pass through regularly, African penguins fish in the bay and the odd ocean sunfish drifts near the surface, flapping a fin like a sail. Sightings are never guaranteed; the skipper searches, but the animals decide.

Between June and November southern right and humpback whales move along the coast and are sometimes seen from the boat, while Bryde's whales can appear in any month. We ask every guest to respect the distance rules that protect these animals; the boat slows and waits rather than chases. Even on a quiet day, the seabirds, the seals and the view of Table Mountain make the hour worthwhile.

Robben Island from the sea

Low and flat on the horizon about eleven kilometres from the Waterfront lies Robben Island, the former prison island where leaders of the struggle against apartheid were held for decades, now a World Heritage Site and museum. The speedboat does not land there, but on many departures the skipper runs towards the island so that you can see its lighthouse, the old quarry and the outline of the prison buildings from the water.

Seeing Robben Island from the sea, with Table Mountain behind you, gives a real sense of how isolated the island was and how close the city always looked to the men held there. If you want to walk through the prison itself, the ferry departs from the same Waterfront and takes about half a day, so many visitors pair the two on the same trip to Cape Town.